Soccer Mom

New birds around......not 'new' as in a new species but, simply new birds to the world. 

Have you ever just watched them? I mean just sit on your back porch and watch the fledglings. Observe.....identify....They are really fascinating and when compared to a human baby, birds learn rapidly. They don't have all that long before they have to move from nest to flight to looonnnnng flight (as in migration).

We had a young pair of hummingbirds as well as 4-5 chickadees to observe on a daily basis, as we just sat on the back porch. The chickadees are a bit demanding, to say the least. They are constantly 'chickadeeing' to their mom. I can safely assume that a 'human soccer mom' has it fairly easy compare to a Chickadee mom. The Chickadee mom is always on call listening to feeding  the young (okay, so is the soccer mom). The chickadee mom is always in search for food (okay, so is the soccer mom). The fledglings have a difficult time just perching on branch without falling (hmmm...so do human toddlers with just standing quietly around too). When the fledglings finally determine to try to enter the bird food cage, they do so but wander around the super market of food attempting to figure out what to eat and from what perch to stand on. Okay, so do human kids at the store and the soccer mom trying to 'round them up'. 

So maybe 'safely assuming' that a soccer mom has it 'easy' compared to the Chickadee mom, well....is a bit of an overstatement. 

So let's move to the hummers. Fast little critters.... One thing I have noticed in is that they are not easily distracted unless...unless....it is from one of their kind. I can stand around right in front of them and they still partake from the feeder or my saliva plants. They really couldn't care less if I am around. If other birds such as  dove or robin or whatever, fly near it....they couldn't care less either. But if their 'kind'....their sibling or mom is close by, .....they immediately take flight and chase the other. Like bear cubs or lion cubs or any cub, they pester each other. 

I haven't quite figured out how the mom will drink up my concoction of sugar water and 'spit' it out into the fledgling. It happened a few times. But the hummer fledgelings took nicely to the feeder though. Just a few mishaps standing on the perch. But both the fledglings and the mom are so quick...that it is hard to follow too far. The dad, well......he was seen once at the beginning of the season so the mom in this case had the kids for the soccer season.